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Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Middle English Literature [1100-1500]


Norman Conquest

The occasion that started the move from Old English to Middle English was the Norman Conquest of 1066. William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy and, later, William I of England) attacked the island of Britain from his home base in northern France, and settled in his new securing alongside his nobles and court. He squashed the restriction with a ruthless hand and denied the Anglo-Saxon earls of their property, dispersing it to Normans (and some English) who upheld him. 

The vanquishing Normans were themselves slipped from Vikings who had settled in northern France around 200 years before (the very word Norman comes initially from Norseman). Nonetheless, they had totally surrendered their Old Norse dialect and wholeheartedly embraced French  to the degree that not a solitary Norse word made due in Normandy. 

Notwithstanding, the Normans talked a country vernacular of French with significant Germanic impacts, for the most part called Anglo-Norman or Norman French, which was entirely not the same as the standard French of Paris of the period. He contrasts between these tongues turned out to be considerably more set apart after the Norman intrusion of Britain, especially in the wake of King John and England lost the French some portion of Normandy to the King of France in 1204 and England turned out to be much more detached from mainland Europe. 

Somewhat English Norman French turned into the dialect of the lords and honorability of England for over 300 years (Henry IV, who went to the English throne in 1399, was the principal ruler since before the Conquest to have English as his primary language). While Anglo-Norman was the verbal dialect of the court, organization and society, however, Latin was for the most part utilized for composed dialect, particularly by the Church and in authority records. For instance, the "Domesday Book", in which William the Conqueror took supply of his new kingdom, was composed in Latin to stress its legitimate power. 

Notwithstanding, the proletariat and lower classes (most by far of the populace, an expected 95%) kept on communicating in English - considered by the Normans a low-class, disgusting tongue - and the two dialects created in parallel, just progressively converging as Normans and Anglo-Saxons started to intermarry. It is this blend of Old English and Anglo-Norman that is generally alluded to as Middle English. 

French (Anglo-Norman) Influence

The Normans handed down more than 10,000 words to English (around 75% of which are still being used today), including an immense number of unique things finishing in the additions "- age", "- ance/ - ence", "- insect/ - ent", "- ment", "- ity" and "- tion", or beginning with the prefixes "con-", "de-", "ex-", "trans-" and "pre-". Maybe typically, a large portion of them identified with matters of crown and honorability (e.g. crown, manor, ruler, check, duke, viscount, nobleman, respectable, sovereign, heraldry); of government and organization (e.g. parliament, government, representative, city); of court and law (e.g. court, judge, equity, charge, capture, sentence, claim, denounce, offended party, bailiff, jury, lawful offense, decision, double crosser, contract, harm, jail); of war and battle (e.g. armed force, covering, toxophilite, fight, warrior, monitor, boldness, peace, adversary, obliterate); of power and control (e.g. power, acquiescence, worker, worker, vassal, serf, worker, philanthropy); of design and high living (e.g. chateau, cash, outfit, boot, magnificence, mirror, gem, hunger, meal, herb, zest, sauce, dish, bread); and of workmanship and writing (e.g. workmanship, shading, dialect, writing, artist, section, question). Inquisitively, however, the Anglo-Saxon words cyning (ruler), cwene (ruler), erl (earl), cniht (knight), ladi (woman) and master held on. 

While humble exchanges held their Anglo-Saxon names (e.g. bread cook, mill operator, shoemaker, and so on), the more talented exchanges received French names (e.g. artisan, painter, tailor, trader, and so on). While the creatures in the field for the most part kept their English names (e.g. sheep, bovine, bull, calf, swine, deer), once cooked and served their names frequently got to be French (e.g. hamburger, sheep, pork, bacon, veal, venison, and so forth). Here and there a French word totally supplanted an Old English word (e.g. wrongdoing supplanted firen, place supplanted stow, individuals supplanted leod, excellent supplanted wlitig, uncle supplanted eam, and so forth). Here and there French and Old English parts joined to shape another word, for example, the French delicate and the Germanic man consolidated to framed man of honor. In some cases, both English and French words survived, however with essentially distinctive faculties (e.g. the Old English fate and French judgment, healthy and friendly, house and chateau, and so on). 

Be that as it may, regularly, diverse words with generally the same importance survived, and an entire host of new, French-based equivalent words entered the English dialect (e.g. the French maternity notwithstanding the Old English parenthood, baby to tyke, harmony to companionship, fight to battle, freedom to flexibility, work to work, yearning to wish, initiate to begin, hide to conceal, gap to divide, near close, request to ask, chamber to room, backwoods to wood, energy to might, yearly to yearly, scent to notice, exculpation to excuse, help to help, and so on). After some time, numerous close equivalent words obtained unobtrusive contrasts in importance (with the French option frequently proposing a larger amount of refinement than the Old English), adding to the accuracy and adaptability of the English dialect. Indeed, even today, states joining Anglo-Saxon and Norman French doublets are still in like manner use (e.g. peace, ruler and ace, love and treasure, ways and means, and so forth). Bilingual word records were being gathered as ahead of schedule as the thirteenth Century. 

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